Industrial Site Contaminates Groundwater in New York

By: Nathan Lamb

Environmental officials are moving forward with plans to remediate a former industrial site that has contaminated groundwater in Endwell, a hamlet of approximately 11,000 people , roughly 80 miles south of Syracuse, New York.

At issue is a former IBM chemical burning pit, which is thought to have created a plume of underground contaminants that have migrated toward a nearby residential zone, according to this article in the Press & Sun Bulletin.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) found trichloroethylene and other industrial solvents in the plume, which is roughly 50 feet underground and just under 600 feet long.

Trichloroethylene is a volatile organic chemical that’s been linked to liver problems and increased cancer risk. Used to remove grease from metals and in some textile production, it typically enters groundwater through industrial site discharge, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Recent DEC testing indicates the plume hasn’t reached the drinking supply for the neighboring residential area—but also found that contaminants have migrated into bedrock beneath the plume, creating a potential chemical vapor hazard if the IBM site is converted to residential use in the future.

The DEC recently finalized a remediation plan for the site, which includes removing groundwater contaminants. The cleanup is slated to get underway this spring, but a discernable impact on contamination levels at the site will not be seen for 10 years.

The 57-acre IBM site was previously home to an electronics testing laboratory, which was also used to dispose of waste chemicals.

Cleanup measures for the site have been in the works since 2006.

Developers and Military/Industrial Complex Bump Heads in Sacramento County

By: Duane Craig

A now defunct housing development in Sacramento County is still haunting the developers who originally had to find sources of water other than groundwater to move on with the project, according to this Sacramento Business Journal article.

At the center of the controversy are a number of aviation manufacturers including Aerojet, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. In a lawsuit, the developers, allege that the manufacturers released hazardous substances into eastern Sacramento County. Those substances, the developers say, contaminated the ground water, requiring them to spend millions to make water available for the development from other sources.

The planned Sunrise-Douglas development south of Rancho Cordova would have had 22,000 homes. But after the water problems and a lawsuit where residents and environmentalists prevailed in stopping the development, the developers are looking for relief from their losses. Specifically, they claim they had to sell the property at a loss as well as incur large legal expenses throughout their ownership - mainly because of the water pollution. The area has had numerous industrial and military sources of pollution including Air Force operations at Mather Air Force Base and contamination from a maker of rocket motors. Contaminants include rocket propulsion waste and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. The developers claim the pollution caused people to close domestic water wells and for the county to also close some of its own wells.

Mississippi's Chemfax Site Set for Next Round of Cleanup

By: Duane Craig

Through the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. taxpayers helped Gulfport, Miss., complete an emergency cleanup of the Chemfax industrial site at Three Rivers and Creosote roads. The bill was about $1.5 million, according to this report at SunHerald.com.

Now, the cleanup needs to be taken to the next level to prevent contamination from reaching Bernard Bayou, and Mississippi will have to carry the financial ball from here to completion. The state says it is waiting for a final cleanup plan before determining the funding.

The work is estimated to include removing 18,000 cubic feet of soil contaminated with base neutral acids, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. That requires digging down from 4 to 10 feet at a cost of about $2.5 million. After the contaminants are removed, the groundwater will have to be monitored for 100 years.

Benzene in air 180 times EPA health-based benchmark

Chemfax made petroleum hydrocarbon resins using a paraffin wax blending process. Water used in the process was stored in a pond, and the pond had an overflow drain going to a drainage ditch. Air sampling in 1990 turned up high levels of "benzene, toluene, xylenes, ethyl benzene, and styrene. The concentrations of benzene detected in the air were over 180 times EPA's health-based benchmarks. Other contaminants were also found in air samples significantly above upwind sample concentrations," according to EPA documents.

Monitoring Wells Being Dug at Superfund Site in Hereford, PA

September 24, 2010 - Bally isn't the only site of a new well in Berks County. Workers are drilling numerous wells in the area of the Crossley Superfund site off Huff's Church Road and Dale Road, which was also contaminated by the former Bally Engineered Structures company in nearby Bally.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, from the 1960s to the 1970s drums of volatile organic compounds were shipped to the site by BES where they were dumped in a pit. During an investigation of the area by the former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources in 1983, it was determined VOCs leaked out of the drums and into the aquifer, contaminating wells below Blackhead Hill with TCE.

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The Earth Will Move: Poisoned CT Neighborhood Braces For Epic Cleanup

August 22, 2010 - Think of it as the big scrape.

An entire neighborhood, poisoned for decades by industrial waste buried beneath homes, yards, schools and playgrounds, is poised for the largest residential cleanup in state history.

Starting Monday, the top four feet of earth in 18 square blocks will be scooped up and hauled away. Clean soil will replace it and trees, lawns, bushes and shrubs will be replanted. The whole process will take up to five years and 230 houses will be affected.

For the Newhall neighborhood, it’s a $60 million do-over.

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Chemical Cleanup Underway at North Andover, MA Plaza

August 7, 2010 - Work is underway to remove chemicals in the soil below North Andover Plaza that leaked from a dry cleaning business there.

A patch of ground below Ace Cleaners, 66 Peters St., is believed to be the origin of contamination, according to a cleanup plan on file with the North Andover Health Department.

Located at the intersection of Route 114 and Peters Street, the plaza is also home to five other businesses — Rocky's Ace Hardware, Panera Bread, Burger King, Den Rock Wine & Spirits and Supercuts. There is also a Bank of America ATM adjacent to the dry cleaner.

Soil tests below the businesses and plaza parking lot have detected the solvents tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene, according to the cleanup plan.

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IEPA Reports Contamination Near Two Algonquin, IL Homes

May 10, 2010 - An Illinois EPA spokesman said there's still no date set to issue a report about Algonquin homes that may be threatened by chemical contamination near the village's decaying Toastmaster factory. However, she summarized testing results for FEN last week this way: Readings outside two residences were just over the limit and both homeowners have been notified.

IEPA and the Illinois Department of Health announced in November that a plume of groundwater extending south east from the area of the factory was contaminated with elevated levels of volatile organic compounds. Experts said the water didn't pose a risk to residents but, since volatile means "easy to vaporize", they wanted to check to see if outgassing from the chemicals was contaminating area residences. Samples were taken late last year and the results were supposed to have been announced in February.

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Residents in Illinois urged to have well water tested

July 28, 2009 - According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, routine testing of Antioch's municipal water wells by the IL EPA indicated that contaminants could be present in the area's private wells. Residents with private wells in Antioch and Libertyville are urged to have their wells tested for volatile organic compounds by a private laboratory.

The risk of adverse health effects depends on the levels of contaminants in the water and the length of exposure. Long-term exposure to the chemicals may results in a health risk to the liver and kidneys, officials said.

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Almost one-quarter of U.S. wells contaminated, report finds

March 27, 2009 - More than one in five private wells across the United States contains at least one contaminant that poses a threat to human health, according to a comprehensive study released Friday.

In New Jersey, some wells had contaminants such as arsenic, mercury, nitrates and volatile organic compounds that were found in levels the government does not consider safe for drinking.

The United States Geological Survey studied 2,167 privately owned wells across the country, including sites in New Jersey. Of the private wells studied, 23 percent contained at least one contaminant.

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Toxic plume poses threat to Peconic River in New York

March 21, 2009 - There is a decades-old groundwater plume of volatile organic chemicals that is more than a quarter-mile wide and could stretch as far as a half-mile south of the former Northrop Grumman weapons plant in Calverton, the News-Review has learned. Traces of the toxic compounds have already been found in the Peconic River, and local authorities and community members are concerned that much greater concentrations of chemicals could foul the river within a few years -- if the U.S. Navy doesn't act swiftly to clean it.

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Maryland home owners win verdict against Exxon

March 12, 2009

TOWSON — On Feb. 21, 2006, Jodi Howe noticed helicopters circling above her home on Robcaste Road in the northern Baltimore County town of Jacksonville. The same night at a community meeting, she learned what the TV news reporters filming from the choppers already knew: a nearby ExxonMobil station had discovered a gas leak that was contaminating the local groundwater.

Three years later, on Thursday morning, Howe found out that she would receive $700,000, roughly the pre-leak value of her home, in compensatory damages for property value diminution, in addition to $1 million in non-economic damages and nearly $150,000 in medical bills for her family.

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Carcinogens found in contaminated soil in Utica, NY

September 8, 2008 - According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, “The Department of Health and Human Services determined that some PAHs may reasonably be expected to be carcinogens. Some people who have breathed or touched mixtures of PAHs and other chemicals for long periods of time have developed cancer.”

Litwhiler said the PAHs found during the investigation were near Elizabeth Street.

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Massachusetts residents raise concerns about PCB - disease correlation

May 30, 2008 - Maria Bicho and her husband liked to get their hands dirty.

The couple, who in 1988 built their home next to the McCoy field, spent countless hours meticulously caring for their lawn that now overlooks the new Keith Middle School.

Her husband, Ceasar, no longer can do what he enjoyed the most - working on his house with his hands.

He began showing symptoms of Parkinsons disease in 2004, and the couple questions if there is a connection between the disease and the location of their house - which was built next to a former city burn dump site contaminated with probable human carcinogens like PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), heavy metals and semi-volatile organic compounds.

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Landfill contamination lawsuits continue in Campbell County Virginia

April 5, 2008 - Claude and Virginia Royal, owners of the 165-acre Twin Oaks manufactured home parknear Yellow Branch, discovered in 2002 that well water serving their residents had elevated levels of volatile organic chemicals, according to a Department of Environmental Quality consent order to the county.

After three years of discussions with the county, the Royals filed several lawsuits in 2005 and 2006 charging that the county operated the landfill in a manner that caused a plume of toxic chemicals to pollute their water and land.

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Tests find high levels of volatile organic compounds in Ithaca New York

December 12, 2007 - A new report on contamination on South Hill continues to show high levels of a variety of volatile organic compound emanating from the fire water reservoir on the Emerson Power Transmission site and from the NCR sewer.

Results show continuing high levels of contaminants in the reservoir and in soil vapor downhill, especially over the two sewer lines that run along South Aurora Street, Columbia Street and Turner Place.

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